Couldn't Live Without You
by WritingFromTheSoul
Summary: The elevator crashed...with them still in it. But he will never give up on her. Oneshot, written for "Till Death Do Us Part."
1. Chapter 1

"_Tony!" Ziva cried as she jumped into the elevator. People crowded past us, frantically trying to get to an exit._

"_Ziva!" I cried back, launching myself into the elevator. I landed on my stomach. Ziva was frantically pushing buttons, trying to get the elevator to go down._

"_Damn it! Go down!" She growled. I got to my feet, and held back her hands. I looked her in the eye._

"_It will be okay."_

_She was shaking, and I held her hands tighter._

_And that's when we heard it._

_It wasn't really a sound, but a total sensory overload. The boom shook me. I felt it vibrate in my teeth, felt it shake everything. And that's when she launched me into the wall._

"_No, Ziva!" I screamed, but she said nothing. _

_And the world was black._

I woke up, shaking. I couldn't make out anything, but I could feel walls around me. It was crumpled metal.

Suddenly, everything came back to me. The bomb, the explosion.

The caving elevator.

Ziva pushing me out of the way.

Suddenly, an adrenaline surge. I sat up, but immediately regretted it. I rubbed the part of my head where the metal had made contact with my skull.

Pumping up every ounce of strength I had, I screamed into the darkness.

"ZIVA!"

No response. I tried again.

"_ZIVA!" _I yelled frantically.

I started to panic. I stood up. Suddenly, my whole body stung, and I realized that I was being assaulted by shards of metal sticking out of the remnants of the elevator. I got on my knees, and started crawling, feeling for Ziva.

After what I guessed was about an hour, I really started to panic. I began to have flashbacks.

Suddenly, I was back in the Somalian camp. Ziva, covered in the dirt and blood of three months, stared at me from her chair.

"_Why are you here?"_

_I shrugged. "Couldn't live without you, I guess."_

I couldn't.

The memory made me surge forward, feeling every corner for her.

Suddenly, I was in front of NCIS. Ziva was glaring at me, fire in her eyes.

"_You jeopardized you entire career, and for what?" She spat._

"_For you."_

"Ziva!" I cried out desperately.

Now, I was in the bullpen, sitting with her, on her desk.

"_I'm just glad to know that there is someone in my life that is just as romantically dysfunctional as me." She smiled that beautiful, perfect smile._

_I suddenly felt myself crack a smile. "Ziva, do you really consider me to be…in your life?"_

In her life.

I was in her life.

And if she died, I died.

Suddenly, the blackness wasn't just around me; it was _in _me. It was crushing me, making it harder for me to breathe. Suddenly, more images came to my mind: Ziva, crushed under a piece of metal, her neck snapped, me at a funeral with a headstone that read _R.I.P Ziva David, _me laying flowers on the grave of my partner.

I felt tears in my eyes, but I refused to let them fall.

Now we were in the Paris hotel. She held my hand, her face dangerously close to me.

_I smirked. "I guess you're not interested in premium channels."_

_There was no mistaking the want in her eyes. _

"_There is only one thing I'm interested in now."_

_Her lips met mine, and a fire blazed in me, warming me from the top of my head to the tip of my toes. _

_I felt alive._

_I kissed her back, wanting nothing more than to sink into her._

_She was mine._

_And I was hers._

I was hers.

Forever.

Suddenly, movement. In the darkness, something stirred. A strand of hope glowed in the darkness that I felt in me and around me.

"Zi-Ziva?" I whispered, crawling towards the mass. "Ziva?"

Suddenly, a moan. Relief flooded me. The crushing weight of the darkness dissipated into nothingness.

"Ziva!" I crawled faster. I felt for her, and, suddenly, my hand met the soft fabric of her shirt.

She moaned again. I lightly shook her.

"Ziva, it's me." I said quietly. I felt her roll over. I laid down next to her, my arm across her.

"My….pocket…." She whispered. I reached into her pants pocket and pulled out a cell phone. I felt for the button, and I clicked it.

Suddenly, her face was illuminated by the glow of the phone.

"Tony?" she asked. I nodded.

"Tony! Oh my god! I'm so glad you're alive!" She cried out, bringing a hand up to my face.

Trying hard to cry, I took her in my arms, and kissed her.

"Me too, Zi. Me too."


	2. Chapter 2

_With shaking hands, I yanked out the flash drive, which was now stocked with NCIS files. I heard the screams from my window. I reached up to my shelf and grabbed Bert, and squeezed him tightly._

"_We'll be okay, Bert." I whispered, clutching him and the flash drive closer to me._

_I had barely made it three steps from my lab door when Gibbs came running in._

"_ABBY!" He yelled._

"_Gibbs!" I cried. He grabbed me, and shoved me down, laying on top of me._

"_I promised you wouldn't get hurt." He whispered in my ear sadly._

"_Gibbs, what are you-" Then, suddenly, pain. I screamed._

_I knew no more…._

* * *

The first thing I knew when I woke up was pain.

I felt it everywhere- in my side, on my stomach, in my head.

And in myself.

I felt like I was choking as the last painful moments came back to me.

The explosion.

Gibbs throwing himself on top of me.

I tried to sit up, but couldn't. A large piece of a concrete beam was sprawled across me, balanced delicately above me. I gulped and quickly said a quiet prayer, thanking my lucky stars that the concrete beam fell the way it did. Still laying on the ground, I looked around me. The rubble sprawled out for a long ways, but the light of searchlights illuminated a few small spots. Unfortunately, not one of them was anywhere close to me.

Wait.

Where was my silver fox?

Where was he?

I looked around again, but saw nothing. Nothing but rubble.

I took another glance up to the concrete up above me.

"God, let me please find him safe." I murmured. I rolled over lightly. I heard the concrete moan, and my heart rate suddenly started double-time. I reached out and clawed the rubble before me, pulling myself out from under the beam.

"Gibbs!" I called into the rubble.

No response.

My heart rate did triple time.

"GIBBS!" I screamed, desperately praying for something. An answer, at least something that told me he was still alive.

Something that told me my father was not killed trying to save me.

After a while, I started fading into somewhat of a delirium. I began having intense flashbacks.

First, I imagined I was back in my whole, beautiful lab.

"_You're just saying that to make me feel safe."_

_He grinned, and kissed my forehead. "I'll keep you safe, I promise Abby."_

He had promised he'd keep me safe.

Even if it would cost him his own life.

Now I was back in my lab, except there were bat ornaments hung in front of me, a glint of light hitting each one.

"_It's okay, Abbs." Gibbs said, putting his arm around my shoulder. I nestled farther into it, against his warmth. I smiled, and switched off the light._

"GIBBS!" I screamed again, praying for an answer. I was now practically ripping rubble away, trying to find the man who saved my life.

I could feel his arms around me, feel his lips on my forehead as he congratulated me on my good work.

He was the closest thing to a true father I had known.

And I wasn't going to let him go.

Suddenly, I heard shifting. I whipped around, terrified, thinking another piece was about to fall. I heard voices behind me, shouting. They sounded like rescuers.

I did not care.

I needed to find him.

"I'm trying to find him!" I shouted to the rescuers, who started yelling back.

"Miss, come back here!"

"Miss, it's dangerous-"

"NO!" I screeched. "Not until I find Gibbs!"

I turned back, and heard more shifting, but ahead of me. Then, something caught my eye. Something that stood out against the black charred debris.

The gray cuff of a jacket.

"Gibbs!" I cried out. I kicked aside black, burn pieces of stone and shuffled through the debris. I felt tears sting my eyes as I realized that he was covered in charred stone. Quickly, I began ripping away at it. A sort of determination had taken over me, making me rip piece after piece like a madman.

Then, I saw it.

A tuft of gray hair.

"GIBBS!"

I threw off the last piece of burnt concrete. There he was. He had a long gash trailing from his jaw to his forehead, he was bruised, but otherwise untouched.

"Gibbs." I whispered. I put my hand on his cheek, and he stirred slightly.

I began digging into the debris more, and more hands joined me as we dug through the layers of rubble to get to him.

"You're gonna be okay, Gibbs!" I cried as I yanked away the remaining debris. Then, his full body came into view. His shirt was hanging in tatters, and his pants were about the same. He also had numerous bruises and cuts, but nothing major was broken, and he wasn't dead.

He wasn't dead.

And that was probably the best I could've asked for.

I threw myself on him, sobbing into his shoulder.

"A-Abby?" he asked quietly. "Oh my god. You're okay." He said, reaching up to me.

"Of course I'm okay, Gibbs." I looked at him and smiled. "You're okay. And that's all I need."

* * *

**I know, short, crappier chapter.**

**No flames, guys! But REVIEWS! I want them!**

**-Vi**


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